The authority for social security and preparedness, MSB, has today decided that the Chinese app Tiktok shall not be used on the employees’ work mobile phones. This since more and more countries have recently banned Tiktok on mobile phones used in government service.
Is Tiktok a fun app where young, old and people in different countries can bond with funny videos and dances that spread like wildfire?
Or is it the wet dream of all security services about total surveillance, where you can see in real time how large parts of the world’s population move?
The concerns surrounding the Chinese app have caused several countries to stop the use of company mobile phones. Today the same message came from the EU Parliament and last week from the Commission.
In Sweden, the government office has banned Tiktok, but among Swedish authorities before Christmas there were still more people who allowed Tiktok than stopped it. But now MSB has taken a new decision.
– MSB has made a new decision this week regarding tiktok, the reason is that we are constantly reassessing due to the security situation and new information. Now we advise against all activity on Tiktok, says Emelie Ruud, press spokesperson MSB.
The US gave its government employees 30 days to delete the app and yesterday Canada made the same decision.
Tiktok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. Now the Chinese government is reacting to the decisions to ban the app.
– The United States, the world’s largest country, has little self-confidence to use an app that young people like. We oppose the United States’ unreasonable way of inhibiting companies from other countries, says Mao Ning, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in China.